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GB · Country profile

Best brokers in the United Kingdom

For UK investors the account wrapper matters more than the commission. A stocks and shares ISA makes all gains and dividends tax-free — an advantage no non-ISA provider can undercut on fees alone. With ISA providers, watch the platform charge in particular: percentage models are cheap on small portfolios and markedly expensive on large ones compared with flat-fee models.

The ranking

Risk warning: CFDs and leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly. Investments can fall in value. Past performance is not an indicator of future results.

Brokers available
43of 72
With a local licence
32
Tier-1 regulated
42
Avg. score
4.0

Market in figures

United Kingdom: the broker market in figures

43 of the 72 brokers in our dataset accept clients resident in the United Kingdom. The figures below count only what a record documents — a missing entry never counts as a yes.

GBP as an account currency
37of 43
Customer support in English
43of 43
Commission on a €5,000 share order
€0 – €12.5022 providers with a comparable price
No custody fee (documented)
24of 43

Run your own numbers

Country profile

Market profile

Supervision, investor protection and tax — the three points that decide the account.

United Kingdom

GB · Country profile

Local currency
GBP
Local regulator
FCA
Recorded providers
43 of 72

Investor protection

FSCS — up to GBP 85,000 per person and institution

The part that decides

Tax notes

Gains above the annual capital gains allowance (GBP 3,000 in 2026/27) are taxable. Inside a stocks and shares ISA all gains and income are free of UK income tax and capital gains tax, however large — only the amount you pay in is capped, at GBP 20,000 a year across all ISAs. A SIPP serves retirement saving. Purchases of UK shares attract 0.5% stamp duty reserve tax; exemptions include shares on recognised growth markets such as AIM, foreign shares bought outside the UK, and — for three years from listing — shares in companies newly listed on a UK regulated market (agreements made on or after 27 November 2025).

Brokers that withhold tax locally

Our dataset records these providers as tax withholding agents for this country. Whether that removes the need to declare the income yourself is something we have not checked for this country. The country's tax law decides.

Orientation based on the general legal position — not tax advice. Your personal situation and the legislation in force at the time govern.

Available here

The ranking

Ranked by our overall score across ten weighted criteria. Only providers that accept clients resident here.

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Where you live decides which brokers and promotions are open to you. The page language is independent of it.

Advertising disclosure: where a partnership is active, we may earn a commission through broker links. The provider’s terms apply. Commissions do not influence our ratings; paid placements are separately labelled as sponsored.

Rank 1

Charles Schwab

The full-service US giant that also owns thinkorswim, a professional-grade trading platform.

  • US long-term investors
  • Options and futures traders
Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
1 %
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+5
  • Pros: USD 0 commission on every online listed US stock and ETF order, with no share cap and no proprietary-fund restrictions
  • Cons: No spot cryptocurrency trading — only ETFs, futures and crypto-adjacent equities, which puts Schwab behind Fidelity and well behind Robinhood
Group index 93/100
SECFINRA, FDIC
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 2IG logo

IG

The most complete leveraged-trading operation in Europe — and it prices like it knows that.

  • Experienced CFD and spread bet traders
  • Multi-asset traders who want one account

Volume rebate — CFD volume rebate at the Bermuda entity

Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
0.8 %
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+9
  • Pros: Around 17,000 tradable markets in a single account — shares, indices, FX, commodities, bonds, ETFs, turbo warrants and crypto CFDs, subject to regional restrictions
  • Cons: The 0.8% currency conversion mark-up on foreign-currency CFD and spread bet trades is where much of the real cost hides — on a USD position round-trip it comfortably exceeds the spread
Group index 100/100
FCABaFin, FINMA, ASIC, MAS, JFSA, DFSA
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 3Interactive Brokers logo

Interactive Brokers

The cheapest serious route to almost every market on earth — if you can live with the learning curve.

  • Active and professional traders
  • Multi-currency investors

Up to USD 1,000 in stock — Referral programme with share credit

Note: this button leads to the Interactive Brokers home page and is not a referral link. The share credit is only available if you open the account through an invitation from an existing Interactive Brokers client.

Stocks (per order)
0.05 %
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
0 %
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+8
  • Pros: US stocks from USD 0.0035 per share on the Tiered plan, minimum USD 0.35 per order and capped at 1% of trade value
  • Cons: Customer support is the most common complaint: many requests go through the ticket system, and public reviews (e.g. on Trustpilot) often cite slow replies and template answers
Group index 90/100
SECFCA, CBI, ASIC, MAS
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 4CMC Markets logo

CMC Markets

One of the best charting packages in retail CFD trading, wrapped around a narrower product range than the market count suggests.

  • Technical and chart-driven traders
  • UK and Irish spread betting
Stocks (per order)
Free (CFD)
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
0.7 %
StocksETFsOptionsForex+6
  • Pros: Next Generation is one of the strongest charting suites bundled with a retail CFD account —115+ indicators, 70 chart patterns, 12 chart types and pattern-recognition scanners, at no extra cost
  • Cons: None of CMC's derivatives is exchange-traded: the options it quotes are OTC and cash-settled, and there are no cleared futures at all, so CMC is the counterparty on every derivative contract and no clearing house stands behind it
Group index 94/100
FCAASIC, BaFin, MAS
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 5

Pepperstone

Raw spreads and five platforms for traders who care about execution cost, not about owning the asset.

  • Active FX traders
  • Scalping and day trading

From 0.0 pips — Raw spreads from 0.0 pips with commission

Stocks (per order)
0.1 % (CFD)
Minimum deposit
US$10
FX conversion
n/a
StocksETFsForexCFDs+5
  • Pros: Razor all-in EUR/USD cost of about 0.8 pips - a 0.0 to 0.1 pip raw spread plus USD 3.50 per lot per side
  • Cons: Everything is a CFD. You never own the share or ETF, so there are no voting rights, no transferable holdings and no dividend tax reclaim
Group index 82/100
FCAASIC, BaFin, CySEC, DFSA, SCB, CMA
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 6Saxo logo

Saxo

A Danish bank that trades like a professional platform — broad, polished, and no longer expensive.

  • Multi-asset portfolios
  • Bond investors

Tiered — Improved pricing at higher account tiers

Stocks (per order)
0.08 %
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
0.25 %
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+7
  • Pros: Full Danish banking licence (Finanstilsynet licence 1149) and SIFI designation — a stronger structural safeguard than a broker-only permission
  • Cons: Currency conversion costs 0.25% over mid-market for EU and Swiss clients, and up to 0.60% at the UK entity's Classic tier — the single largest hidden cost for cross-currency investors
Group index 96/100
DFSAFCA, FINMA, MAS, JFSA
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 7Capital.com logo

Capital.com

A polished retail CFD platform in Europe, provided you accept that CFDs are the whole product.

  • Active CFD traders
  • Forex day trading
Stocks (per order)
in the spread
Minimum deposit
US$20
FX conversion
0.7 %
StocksETFsForexCFDs+4
  • Pros: No commission on any CFD and no inactivity fee whatsoever — unusual in the CySEC/FCA CFD segment
  • Cons: 0.7% currency conversion markup on every trade settled outside your base currency — the single largest hidden cost here
Group index 77/100
FCAASIC, CySEC
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 8XTB logo

XTB

One of the strongest trading platforms in the commission-free bracket - xStation 5 is a professional workspace attached to a zero-commission share account.

  • Serious charting on a budget
  • Commission-free European stocks

0% — 0% commission on stocks and ETFs up to the monthly volume cap

Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
0.5 %
StocksETFsOptionsForex+4
  • Pros: xStation 5 is one of the strongest platforms in the commission-free bracket - a real screener, market heat map, sentiment data, economic calendar and news in one workspace, on web, desktop and mobile with near-identical features.
  • Cons: The 0.5% currency conversion charge (0.8% at weekends and on public holidays) applies whenever the instrument currency differs from your account currency. For a EUR investor buying US stocks it is charged on the way in and again on the way out, and it dwarfs the commission it replaces.
Group index 72/100
FCAKNF, CySEC, CNMV, DFSA, FSCA, FSC
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 9CapTrader logo

CapTrader

Interactive Brokers' market access wrapped in German regulation, German support and a German phone number.

  • German-speaking options and futures traders
  • Active traders who want IBKR pricing with German support
Stocks (per order)
0.1 %
Minimum deposit
€2,000
FX conversion
0 %
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+7
  • Pros: BaFin-supervised German investment firm (institution number 10156708) with a Düsseldorf address, German contract law and a free German hotline until 20:00
  • Cons: No Abgeltungsteuer is withheld. German investors gain a compounding advantage but must declare everything themselves via Anlage KAP, and a Freistellungsauftrag is not possible — for many people that alone rules CapTrader out
Group index 81/100
BaFinCBI, FCA
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 10

IC Markets

One of the cheapest routes to raw institutional FX pricing - as long as you check which entity you are signing with.

  • Algorithmic and EA traders
  • Scalping and high-frequency FX
Stocks (per order)
0.1 % (CFD)
Minimum deposit
€200
FX conversion
n/a
StocksFuturesForexCFDs+5
  • Pros: All-in EUR/USD cost of roughly 0.6 to 0.8 pips on Raw Spread - a 0.0 to 0.1 pip raw spread plus USD 3.50 per lot per side
  • Cons: Most non-EU, non-Australian clients contract with Raw Trading Ltd under Seychelles licence SD018 - an offshore regulator with no investor compensation scheme behind it
Group index 70/100
ASICCySEC, FSCA, FSA, SCB, CMA
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rank 11tastytrade logo

tastytrade

An options-specialist US broker: USD 1 per contract to open, closing commission-free — built by people who trade premium for a living.

  • Options premium sellers
  • High-volume multi-leg traders

USD 0 to close — No commission to close options positions

Stocks (per order)
Free
Minimum deposit
None
FX conversion
n/a
StocksETFsOptionsFutures+5
  • Pros: Equity options are USD 1 per contract to open, USD 0 to close and capped at USD 10 per leg — large multi-leg orders scale for free
  • Cons: FINRA censured and fined tastytrade USD 850,000 in 2026 for failing to run adequate best-execution reviews on equity orders routed to five payment-for-order-flow market makers between 2020 and 2023
Group index 82/100
FINRASEC, NFA
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: investing in securities involves risk. You may lose some or all of the capital you invest.

Rank 12Admirals (Admiral Markets) logo

Admirals (Admiral Markets)

The rare CFD broker that also settles real shares — broad, well-priced and unusually forgiving about dormant accounts.

  • Real share investing
  • MetaTrader users
Stocks (per order)
US$0.02/share
Minimum deposit
€100
FX conversion
0.3 %
StocksETFsForexCFDs+4
  • Pros: Real share and ETF ownership through Invest.MT5 — roughly 4,800 listed companies and 200-plus ETFs from USD 0.02 per share with a USD 1.00 minimum, with no custody or platform fee.
  • Cons: Support is weekday office hours only, with no weekend desk — a genuine gap for anyone holding crypto CFDs over a Saturday.
Group index 72/100
FCAASIC, CySEC, FSCA, JSC, CMA, FSA
Protection depends on your legal entity
Visit brokerRead review

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

By trading style

Best broker per category

Every category weights the rating criteria differently — which is why the same provider rarely wins everywhere.

Transparency

Not available here

Transparency means showing the gaps too. These recorded providers do not accept clients resident here.

Head to head

The top 8, row by row

Fees apply to retail accounts under normal market conditions. Each provider's data date is on its review.

The top 8, row by row — United Kingdom
Rank#BrokerOverall scoreStocks (per order)Minimum depositFX conversionLocal licenceTax withheldAsset classesAction
1Charles SchwabSEC · FINRA · FDIC4.6FreeNone1 %Local licenceTax withheld9Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

2IG logoIGFCA · BaFin · FINMA4.5FreeNone0.8 %Local licenceTax withheld13Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

3Interactive Brokers logoInteractive BrokersSEC · FCA · CBI4.50.05 %None0 %Local licenceTax withheld12Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

4CMC Markets logoCMC MarketsFCA · ASIC · BaFin4.4Free (CFD)None0.7 %Local licenceTax withheld10Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

5PepperstoneFCA · ASIC · BaFin4.40.1 % (CFD)US$100.8 pipsLocal licenceTax withheld9Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

6Saxo logoSaxoDFSA · FCA · FINMA4.40.08 %None0.25 %Local licenceTax withheld11Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

7Capital.com logoCapital.comFCA · CySEC · ASIC4.3in the spreadUS$200.7 %Local licenceTax withheld8Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

8XTB logoXTBKNF · FCA · CySEC4.3FreeNone0.5 %Local licenceTax withheld8Visit broker

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Provider holds a licence from a supervisory authority of this country. Our dataset records the provider as a tax withholding agent for this country.

Advertising disclosure: where a partnership is active, we may earn a commission through broker links. The provider’s terms apply. Commissions do not influence our ratings; paid placements are separately labelled as sponsored.

Countries

Frequently asked questions

43 of the 72 providers recorded in our dataset accept clients resident in the United Kingdom. The highest rated right now are Charles Schwab, IG and Interactive Brokers. The full ranking with fees and regulation is at the top of this page.

Content on Brokaro is for information purposes only and is not investment, legal or tax advice.

Read on

Guides and calculators for investors in the United Kingdom

Background on tax, fees and regulation — and calculators for your own amounts.

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